application of the science and profession of psychology to questions and issues relating to law and the legal system

Forensic Psychiatry

branch of psychiatry pertaining to the study of crime and criminality

Psychological Theory

derived from the behavioral sciences thatt focuses on the individual

Conditioning

the frequency of any behavior can be increased or decreased through reward, punishment or association with other stimuli

Psychpathy

personality disorder characterized by antisocial behavior and lack of affect

Psychopath/ sociopath

individual who has a personality disorder, especially one manifested in aggressively antisocial behavior and who is lacking in empathy

Antisocial (asocial) personality

individuals who are basically unsociolized and whose behavior pattern brings them repeatedly into conflict with society

EEG

electrical measurement of brain wave activity

Psychiatric criminology

theories that are derived from the medical sciences and that focus on the individual as the unit of analysis

Psycoanalysis

theory of human psychology founded by Freud on the concepts of the unconscious, resistance, repression, sexuality and the Oedipus Complex

Psychotherapy

Form of Psychiatric treatment based on psychoanalytical principles and techniques

Id

pleasure principle

Ego

Reality Principle

Superego

Ethical Principle

Sublimation

Psychological process whereby one aspect of consciousness comes to be symbolically substituted for another

Thantos

death wish

Neurosis

functional disorder of the mind or the emotions involving anxiety, phobia...

Psychosis

form of mental illness in which sufferers are said to be out of touch with reality

Schizophrenic

mentally ill individual who is out of touch with reality and suffers from disjointed thinking

Paranoid Schizophrenic

schizophrenic individual who suffers from delusions and hallucinations

Alloplastic Adaptation

form of adjustment that results from changes in the environment surrounding the individual

autoplastic adaptation

a form of adjustment that results from changes within an individual

Modeling theory

form of special learning theory that asserts that people learn how to act by observing others

Behavior Theory

psychological perspective that posits that individual behavior that is rewarded will increase and that which is punished will decrease

operant behavior

behavior that affects the environment in such a way as to produce responses

attachment theory

successful development of secure attachment between child and parent provides the basic foundation for all psychological development

self-control

person's ability to alter their responses

insanity (legal)

inability to understand right from wrong or to conform one's behavior to the requirements of the law

insanity (psychological)

persistent mental disorder

M'Naughten rule

standard for judging legal insanity that requires that offenders not know what they were doing, or if they did, that they not know it was wrong

irresistible-impulse test

holds that a defendant is not guilty of a criminal offense if the person, by virtue of his or her mental state or psychological condition, was not able to resist committing the action in question

Durham Rule

standard for judging legal insanity that holds that an accused is not criminally responsible if his or her unlawful act was the product of mental disease or mental defect

Substantial-capacity test

standard for judging legal insanity that requires that a person lack the mental capacity needed to understand the wrongfulness of his or her act or to conform his or her behavior to the requirements of the law

Brawner rule

delegates the responsibility to the jury to determine what constitutes insanity

guilty but mentally ill (GBMI)

a finding that offenders are guilty of the criminal offense with which they are charged, but because of their prevailing mental condition, they are generally sent to psychiatric hospitals for treatment rather than prison. once cured, such offenders can be transferred to correctional facilities to serve out their sentences

Selective Incapacitation

social policy that seeks to protect society by incarcerating the individuals deemed to be the most dangerous

Correctional Psychology

branch of forensic psychology concerned with the diagnosis and classification of offenders, the treatment of correctional populations, and the rehabilitation of inmates and other law violators

Psychological Profiling

attempt to categorize, understand and predict the behavior of certain types of offenders based on behavioral clues they provide

sociological theory

a perspective that focuses on the nature of the power relationships that exist between social groups and on the influences that various socail phenomena bring to bear on the types of behaviros that ted to characterize groups of people

social structure

the pattern of socail organization and the interrelationships among institutions characteristic of a society

social process

the interaction between and among social institutions, individuals and groups

social life

the ongoing and typically structured interaction that occurs between persons in a society, including socialization and social behavior in general

social structure theory

a theory that explains crime by reference to some aspect of the socail fabric. These theories emphasize relationships among social institutions and describe the types of behavior that tend to characterize groups of people rather than individuals

social disorganization theory

a perspective on crime and deviance that sees society as a kind of organism and crime and deviance as a kind of disease or social pathology. Theories of social disorganization are often associated with the perspective of social ecology and with the Chicago School of criminology

social disorganization

a condition said to exist when a group is faced with social change, uneven development of culture, maladaptiveness, disharmony, conflict, and lack of consensus

social ecology

an approach to criminological theorizing that attempts to link the structure and organization of a human cummunity to interactions with its localized environment

social pathology

a concept that compares society to a physical organism and that sees criminality as an illness

cultural transmission

the transmission of delinquency through successive generations of people living in the same area through a process of social communication

ecological theory

a type of sociological approach that emphasizes demographics and geographics and that sees the social disorganization that characterizews delinquency areas as a major cause of criminality and victimization

Chicago School of Criminology

An ecological approach to explaining crime that examined how social disorganization contributes to social pathology

criminology of place

A perspective that emphasizes the importance of geographic location and architectural features as they are associated with the prevalence of criminal victimization

environmental criminology

an emerging perspective that emphasizes the importance of geographic location and architectural features as they are associated with the prevalence of criminal victimization

broken windows thesis

a perspective on crime causation that holds that physical deterioration in an area leads to increased concerns for persoanl safety among area residents and to higher crime rates in that area

defensible space

the range of mechanisms that combine to bring an environment under the control of its residents

anomie

a socail condition in which norms are uncertain or lacking

strain theory

a sociological approach that posits a disjuncture between socially and subculturally sanctioned means and goals as the cause of criminal behavior

relative deprivation

a sense of social or economic inequality experienced by those who are unable, for whatever reason, to achieve legitimate success within the surrounding society

distributive justice

the rightful, equitable, and just distribution of rewards within a society

general strain theory (GTS)

a perspective that suggests that lawbreaking behavior is a coping mechanism that enables those who engage in it to deal with the socioemotional problems generated by negative social relations

negative affective states

adverse emotions that derive from the experience of strain, such as ange, fear, depression, and disappointment

culture conflict theory

a sociological perspective on crime that suggests that the root cause of criminality can be found in a clash of values between variously socialized groups over what is acceptable or proper behavior

conduct norms

shared expectations of a social group relative to personal conduct

subculture

a collection of values and preferences that is communicated to subcultural participants through a process of socialization

subcultural theory

a sociological perspective that emphasizes the contribution made by variously socialized cultural groups to the phenomenon of crime

focal concerns

the key values of any culture, especially the key values of a delinquent subculture

techniques of neutralization

culturally available justifications that can provide criminal offenders with the means to disavow responsiblity for their behavior

illegitimate opportunity structure

subcultural pathways to success that the wider society disapproves of

reaction formation

the process by which a person openly rejects taht which he or she wants or aspires to but cannot obtain or achieve

Chicago Area Project

A program focusing on urban ecology and originating at the University of Chicago during the 1930s, which attempted to reduce delinquency, crime, and social disorganization in transitional neighborhoods

social process theory

a theory that asserts that criminal behavior is learned in interaction with others and that socialization processes that occur as the result of group membership are the primary route through which learning occurs

learning theory

a perspective that places primary emphasis upon the role of communication and socialization in the acquisition of learned patterns of criminal behavior and the values that support that behavior

differential association

the sociological thesis that criminality, like nay other form of behavior, is learned through a process of association with others who communicate criminal values

differential identification theory

an explanation for crime and deviance that holds that people pursue criminal or deviant behavior to the extent that they identify themselves with real or imaginary people from whose perspective their criminal or deviant behavior seems acceptable

social control theory

a perspective that predicts that when social constraints on antisocial behavior are weakened or absent, delinquent behavior emerges. Rather than stressing causative factors in criminal behavior, control theory asks why people actually obey rules instead of breaking them

containment theory

a form of control theory that suggests that a series of both internal and external factors contributes to law-abiding behavior

containment

aspects of the social bond that act to prevent individuals from committing crimes that keep them from engaging in deviance

social bond

the link, created through socialization, between individuals and the society of which they are a part

general theory of crime

asserts that the operation of a single mechanism, low self-control, accounts for all crime at all times

control ratio

the amount of control to which a person is subject versus the amount of control that person exerts over others

tagging

the process whereby an individual is negatively defined by agencies of justice

secondary deviance

deviant behavior that results from official labeling and from association with others who have been so labeled

labeling

an interactionist perspective that sees continued crime as a consequence of limited opportunities for acceptable behavior that follow from the negative responses of society to those defined as offenders

moral enterprise

the efforts made by an interest group to have its sense of moral or ethical propriety enacted into law

stigmatic shaming

a form of shaming, imposed as a sanction by the criminal justice system, that is thought to destroy the moral bond between the offender and the community

reintegrative shaming

a form of shaming, imposed as a sanction by the criminal justice system, that is thought to strengthen the moral bond between the offender and the community

dramaturgical perspective

a theoretical point of view that depicts human behavior as centered around the purposeful management of interpersonal impressions

impression management

the intentional enactment of practiced behavior that is intended to convey to others one's desirable personal characteristics and social qualities

discrediting information

information that is inconsistent with the managed impressions being communicated in a given situation

total institution

a facility from which individuals can rarely come and go and in which communal life is intense and circumscribed.

prosocial bonds

bonds between the individual and the social group that strengthen the likelihood of conformity. characterized by attachment to conventional social institutions, values and beliefs

human development

the relationship between the maturing individual and his or her changing environment, as well as the social processes that the relationship entails

social development perspective

and integrated view of human development that examines multiple levels of maturation simultaneously, including the psychological, biological, familial, interpersonal, cultural, societal, and ecological levels

life course criminology

draws attention to the fact that criminal behavior tends to follow a distinct pattern across the life cycle

criminal career

the longitudinal sequence of crimes committed by an individual offender

life course

pathways through the age-differentiated life span; the course of a person's life over time

human agency

the active role that people take in their lives; the fact that people are not merely subject to social and structural constraints but actively make choices and decisions based on the alternatives that they see before them

social capital

the degree of positive relationships with others and with social institutions that individuals build up over the course of their lives

persistence

continuity in crime, or continual involvement in offending

desistance

the cessation of criminal activity or the termination of a period of involvement in offending behavior

Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development

a longitudinal (life course) study of crime and delinquency tracking a cohort of 411 boys born in London in 1953

cohort analysis

a social scientific technique that studies over time a population with common characteristics. Cohort analysis usually begins at birth and traces the development of cohort members until they reach a certain age

evolutionary ecology

an approach to understanding crime that draws attention tot he ways people develop over the course of their lives

interactional theory

a theoretical approach to exploring crime and delinquency that blends social control and social learning perspectives

Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN)

an intensive study of Chicago neighborhoods employing longitudinal evaluations to examine the changing circumstances of people's lives in an effort to identify personal characteristics that may lead toward or away from antisocial behavior

consensus model

an analytical perspective on social organization that holds that most members of society agree about what is right and what is wrong and that the various elements of society work together in unison toward a common vision of the greater good

pluralist perspective

an analytical approach to social organization that holds that a multiplicity of values and beliefs exists in any complex society but that most social actors agree on the usefulness of law as a formal means of dispute resolution

conflict perspective

an analytical perspective on social organization that holds that conflict is a fundamental aspect of social life itself and can never be fully resolved

proletariat

In Marxist theory, the working class

bourgeoisie

In Marxist theory, the class of people who own the means of production

social class

distinctions made between individuals on the basis of important defining social characteristics

radical criminology

a perspective that holds that the causes of crime are rooted in social conditions that empower the wealthy and the politically well organized but disenfranchise the less fortunate

Marxist criminology

A perspective on crime and crime causation based on the writings of Karl Marx

structural Marxism

A perspective that holds that the structural institutions of society influence the behavior of individuals and groups by virtue of the type of relationships created

instrumental Marxism

A perspective that holds that those in power intentionally create laws and social institutions that serve their own interests and that keep others from becoming powerful

critical criminology

A perspective that holds that crime is the natural product of a capitalist system

left-realist criminology

An approach to the subject matter of criminology based on ideas inherent in the perspective of left realism

left realism

A conflict perspective that insists on a pragmatic assessment of crime and its associated problems

feminist criminology

A self-conscious corrective model intended to redirect the thinking of mainstream criminologists to include gender awareness

patriarchy

The traditions of male dominance

androcentricity

A single-sex perspective, as in the case of criminologists who study only the criminality of males

radical feminism

A perspective that holds that any significant change in the social status of women can be accomplished only through substantial changes in social institutions such as the family, law, and medicine

liberal feminism

A perspective that holds that the concerns of women can be incorporated within existing social institutions through conventional means and without the need to drastically restructure society

socialist feminism

A perspective that examines social roles and the gender-based division of labor within the family, seeing both as a significant source of women's subordination within society

power- control theory

A perspective that holds that the distribution of crime and delinquency within society is to some degree founded upon the consequences that power relationships within the wider society hold for domestic settings and for the everyday relationships among men, women, and children within the context of family life

gender gap

The observed differences between male and female rates of criminal offending in a given society, such as the United States

postmodern criminology

a brand of criminology that developed following WWII and that builds on the tenets inherent in postmodern social though

deconstructionist theory

A postmodern perspective that challenges existing criminological theories in order to debunk them and that works toward replacing traditional ideas with concepts seen as more appropriate to the postmodern era

peacemaking criminology

a perspective that holds that crime control agencies and the citizens they serve should work together to alleviate social problems and human suffering and thus reduce crime

peace model

An approach to crime control that focuses on effective ways for developing a shared consensus on critical issues that could seriously affect the quality of life

participatory justice

a relatively informal type of criminal justice case processing that makes use of local community resources rather than requiring traditional forms of official intervention

restorative justice

A postmodern perspective that stresses 'remedies and restoration rather than prision, punishment and victim neglect'

convict criminality

A new radical paradigm consisting of writings on the subject matter of criminology by convicted felons and ex-inmates who have acquired academic credentials, or who are associated with credentialled others

crime typology

a classification of crimes along a particular dimension, such as legal categories, offender motivation, victim behavior, or the characteristics of individual offenders

primary homicide

murder involving family members, friends, and acquaintances

expressive crime

a criminal offense that results from acts of interpersonal hostility, such as jealousy, revenge, romantic triangles, and quarrels

nonprimary homicide

murder that involves victims and offenders who have no prior relationship and that usually occurs during the course of another crime, such as robbery

instrumental crime

A goal-directed offense that involves some degree of planning by the offender

exposure-reduction theory

A theory of intimate homicide that claims that a decline in domesticity, accompanied by an improvement in the economic status of women and a growth in domestic violence resources, explains observed decreases in intimate-partner homicide

sibling offense

An offense or incident that culminates in homicide. The offense or incident may be a crime, such as robbery, or an incident that meets a less stringent criminal definition, such as a lover's quarrel involving assault or battery

victim precipitation

contributions made by the victim to the criminal event, especially those that led to its initiation

selective disinhibition

A loss of self-control due to the characteristics of the social setting, drugs or alcohol, or a combination of both

serial murder

Criminal homicide that involves the killing of several victims in three or more separate events

mass murder

The illegal killing of four or more victims at one location within one event

Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (VICAP)

The program of the FBI focusing on serial murder investigation and the apprehension of serial killers

Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)

A federal law enacted as a component of the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement ACt and intended to address concerns about violence against women. The law focused on improving the interstate enforcement of protection orders, providing effective training for court personnel involved with women's issues, improving the training and collaboration of police and prosecurtors with victim service providers, strengthening law enforcement efferts to reduce violence against women, and increasing services to victims of violence

National Violence against Women (NVAW) survey

A national survey of the extent and nature of violence against women conducted between November 1995 and May 1996 and funded through grants from the National Institute of Justice and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control

rape myth

A false assumption about rape such as "When a woman says no, she really means yes." Rape myths characterize much of the discourse surrounding sexual violence

rape shield law

A statute providing for the protection of rape victims by ensuring that defendants do not introduce irrelevant facts about the victim's sexual history into evidence

acquaintance rape

Rape characterized by a prior social, though not necessarily intimate or familial, relationship between the victim and the perpetrator

spousal rape

The rape of one spouse by the other. The term usually refers to the rape of a woman by her husband

Child sexual abuse (CSA)

A term encompassing a variety of criminal and civil offenses in which an adult engages in sexual activity with a minor, exploits a minor for purposes of sexual gratification, or exploits a minor sexually for purposes of profit

personal robbery

Robbery that occurs on the highway or street or in a public place and robbery that occurs in residences

institutional robbery

robbery that occurs in commercial settings, such as convenience stores, gas stations, and banks

intimate-partner assault

A gender-neutral term used to characterize assaultive behavior that takes place between individuals involved in an intimate relationship

separation assault

Violence inflicted by partners on significant others who attempt to leave an intimate relationship

workplace violence

The crimes of murder, rape, robbery and assault committed against persons who are at work or on duty

stalking

A course of conduct directed at a specific person that involves repeated visual or physical proximity; nonconsensual communication; verbal, written, or implied threates; or a combination thereof that would cause a reasonable person fear

cyberstalking

An array of high-tech related activities in which an offender may engage to harass or 'follow' individuals, including e-mail and the Internet

professional criminal

A criminal offender who makes a living from criminal pursuits, is recognized by other offenders as professional, and engages in offending that is planned and calculated

persistent thief

one who continues in common-law property crimes despite no better than an ordinary level of success

offense specialization

A preference for engaging in a certain type of offense to the exclusion of others